Five Natural Disasters That Threatened To Break IT Supply Chains

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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a deadly and easily-transmitted viral respiratory illness which started in late 2002 in southern China, by the Spring of 2003 had disrupted travel to and from Asia and shut down several Asian IT manufacturers where as few as a single case appeared.

While the IT supply chain impact was limited as infected countries quickly moved to contain outbreaks, the SARS epidemic's bigger impact was the realization that a similar epidemic, if not contained, could cause massive business disruptions as factories closed and workers refused to go to work for fear of getting infected.